Introducing an iconic investigative duo—a hapless detective and his capable cat—in this must-read by one of Japan's most beloved novelists of crime fiction.

Detective Yoshitaro Katayama is afraid of many things: heights, dark spaces, blood and ... women. When a young female student is found murdered, he's given two choices—review the harrowing crime-scene photographs or head to Hagoromo Women's College to investigate—and reluctantly opts for the latter.

But the threat escalates with additional murders, and soon Katayama has a different surprise on his hands: a calico cat named Holmes, orphaned when the dean himself falls victim.

Surely that's the last thing Katayama needs. Until Holmes begins to display some uncanny investigative instincts of her own ...